13. That the Popes and the Bishops indulgences be vnprofitable, neither can they profite them, to whom they be geuen by any meanes.

14. That the laity is not bound to obey the prelates what so euer they commaūd, vnles the prelats do watch to geue God a iust account of the soules of them.

15. That Images are not to be sought to by pilgrimages, neither is it lawfull for Christians, to bow theyr knees to them, neither to kisse them, nor to geue them any maner of reuerence. For the which Articles the Archbishoppe with other Bishops, and diuers learned commoning together, MarginaliaThe bookes of I. Claidon burned.first condemned the bookes as hereticall and burned them in fire: and then because they thought the said Iohn Claydon to be forsworne and fallen into heresy, the Archbishop did proceed to his definitiue sentence against the said Iohn personally appearing before him in iudgement (his cōfessions being read and deposed against him) after this maner.

MarginaliaThe sentence & condemnation of Iohn Claidō.IN the name of God. Amen. We Henry by the grace of GOD Archbishop of Caunterbury, primate of all England, and Legate of the Apostolicke sea, in a certayne cause of hereticall prauity & of relapse into the same, wherupon I. Claidon lay man of the prouince of Caunterbury, was detected, accused and denounced, & in the sayd our prouince of Caunterbury publickely defamed (as by publick fame and common report notoriously to vs hath bene known) first, sitting in iudgement seat & obseruing all things lawfully required in this behalfe, do proceed to the pronouncing of the sentence definitiue in forme as followeth. The name of Christ being inuocated & onely set before our eies, forasmuch as by the actes and thinges enacted, producted, exhibited and confessed before vs, also by diuers signes & euidences we haue found the said Iohn Claydon to haue bene and to be publickly and notoriously relapsed agayne into his former heresye, heretofore by him abiured: according to the merites and desertes of the sayd cause, being of vs diligently searched, weyed and pondered before, to the intēt that the sayd I. Claidon shall not infect other with his scab, by the consent and assent of our reuerend brethrē Richard Bishop of Lōdon, Iohn Bishop of Couentry and Liechfield, & Steuen Bishop of S. Dauids, and of other Doctors as well of diuinity as of both lawes, and also of other discreete and learned men assisting vs in this behalfe, do iudge, pronounce, and declare the sayd I. Claydon, to be relapsed agayne into his heresy, which he before did abiure, finally and definitiuely appoynting him to be left vnto the secular iudgement, and so do leaue him by these presentes.

Thus Iohn Claidon receiuing his iudgement & condemnation of the Archbishop, MarginaliaIohn Claidon cōmitted to the secular power.was committed to the secular power, and by them vniustly & vnlawfully was cōmitted to the fire,MarginaliaThe law de comburendo, insufficient. for that the tēporall magistrate had no such law sufficient for them to burne any suche man for religion condēned of the prelats, as is aboue sufficiently proued & declared pag. 523. But to be short, Quo iurè quaque iniuria, Iohn Cleydon notwithstanding by the temporall magystrats, not lōg after, was had to smithfield, MarginaliaThe death and martirdome of Iohn Claidon.where meekely he was made a burnt offering vnto the Lord. an. 1415.

Commentary on the Woodcuts     Close

The London skinner, John Claydon, enters the annals of Lollard history (and martyrology) chiefly on account of his possession and reading (or rather hearing read, since he was illiterate) of the still extant text, The Lanterne of Light. It was this which brought him to his death in 1415. The associate who was tried and burned with him, variously named Richard Gurmyn, Turmyn and Baker (presumably his trade), may have participated in Oldcastle's rising the previous year. Foxe went to the Canterbury Registers to verify the case against these two men, as part of his investigation into the case against Lord Cobham (part of whose story precedes this in the Acts and Monuments). Note that Claydon had been under suspicion of heresy for twenty years, so he was not a young man when executed. CUL copy: if Claydon is the figure on the left then his age is suggested by the colouring in of this copy, that depicts this man as having both greying hair and beard. The figure on the right has rich brown chosen for his hair and beard. Both men are dressed in white. Wren: the same attention to detail appears in the colouring of this copy also.

Robert Fabian, and other Chronologers which folow him, adde also that Richard Turming Baker, of whome mention is made before in the examination of Iohn Claydon, was likewise þ^e same time burned with him in smithfield.MarginaliaI. Claidon, Richard Turming, martirs. Albeit in the Register I finde no sentence of condemnation geuen against the sayd Turming, neither yet in the story of S. Albons is there any such mētiō of his burning made, but only of the burning of Iohn Claydon aforesaid: wherfore the iudgement hereof I leaue free to the reader. Notwithstanding, concerning the sayd Turming thys is certaine that he was accused vnto the bishops, & no doubt was in their handes, & bands. What afterward was done with him, I refer it vnto the authors.

The next yeare after the burning of these two aforesaid and also of Iohn Hus being burnt at Constaunce, whiche was an. 1416.MarginaliaAnno 1416. the Prelates of England seing the dayly increase of the Gospell, and fearing the ruine of theyr papall kingdome, were busily occupied with all theyr counsel and diligence, to mayntayne the same. Wherefore to make their state and kingdome sure, by statutes, lawes, constitutions, and terrour of punishment, as Thomas Arundell and other Prelates had done before, so the forenamed Henrye Chichesley Archbishop of Canterbury, in his conuocation holden at London, maketh another constitutiō (as though there had not enough bene made before) agaynst the poore Lollardes: the coppy and tenor wherof he sendeth abroad, to the bishop of London, and to other his Suffraganes by them to be put in straight execution, conteyning in words as foloweth.

MarginaliaEx Regist. Chichesley. 217.HEnry by the grace of God Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of all England, and Legate of the chiefest seat: to our reuerēd brother in the Lord Richard, by the grace of God bishop of London, health, & brotherly loue, with continuall increase. Lately in our last conuocation in Sayncte Paules Church in London, being kept by you and other our brethren and clergy of our prouince, we do remember to haue made this order vnderwritten by your consentes, When as among many other our cares this ought to be chiefe, þ^t by some meanes we take those heretickes, whiche like foxes lurke & hide thēselues, in the Lordes vineyard: MarginaliaYou should be better occupied to shake of the duste from your dusty pulpets.& that the dust of negligēce may be vtterly shakē from our feete and from the feete of our fellow brethren: In thys the sayd conuocation of the Prelats and clergy, we haue ordeined, and that our fellowe brethren, our Suffraganes and Archdeacons of our prouince of Canterbury by thēselues, their Officials or Commissaryes in all their iurisdictiōs, & euery of their charges in theyr country, MarginaliaTwise euery yeare to enquire for Lollardes.twise euery yere at the least, do diligētly enquire of such persons as are suspect of heresy: And that in euery suche their Archdeaconries in euery parish, wherin is reported any hereticks to inhabit, they cause three or more of the honestest mē and best reported of, to take their othe vpon the holy Euangelist, that if they shall knowe or vnderstand any frequenting either in priuy conuēticles,MarginaliaAgainst priuie conuenticles. or els deferring in life or maners frō the common conuersation of other Catholick men,MarginaliaTo differ frō the common sort in life and maners, against the popes lawe. or els that holde any, either heresyes or errors, or els that haue any suspected bookes in the English tong,MarginaliaAgainst Englishe bookes. or that do receiue any such persons suspect of heresyes and errours into theyr houses, or that be fauorers of them that are inhabitants in any such place, or conuersant with them, or els haue any recourse vnto them: they make certificats of those persons in writing: with all the circumstances wherewith they are suspect, vnto the said our Suffraganes or Archdeacons, or to theyr Commissaryes, so soone, & with as much speede as possibly they can: And that the sayd Archdeacon and euery of their Commissaryes aforesayd: do declare the names of all such persons denounced together with all the circūstāces of thē, the dioces, & places, & secretly vnder theyr seales do send ouer vnto vs the same: And þ^t the same diocessans effectually direct forth lawfull proces agaynst them, as the quality of the cause requireth, & that with all diligence they discerne, define and execute the same.

And if perhaps they leaue not such persons cōuict vnto the secular court, yet notwithstanding let them commit thē vnto the perpetuall or temporall prisons, as the quality of the cause shall require, vntil the next conuocation of þ^e prelates and Clergy of our prouince of Canterbury, there personally to remaine: and that in the same prisons they cause thē to be kept according as the lawe requireth: And that of all and singular the things aforesayd, that is, what iniquisition they haue made, and what they haue found, and how in the processe they haue behaued themselues, and what persons so conuict they haue caused to be put in safe keeping, with what diligence or negligence of the Commissaryes aforesayd, with all and all maner of other circumstances premises, and therunto in any wise apperteining, and